Beirut - Postcards From Italy

July 5, 2007 · Print This Article

Beirut - Postcards From Italy (Chords)

Beirut - Postcards From Italy (mp3) via beirutband.com

My recent Fluke acquisition reminded me of the video for Beirut’s Elephant Gun. While I was checking it out, I came across this impromptu performance Postcards From Italy and decided I had to work out the song.

Beirut mainman Zach Condon’s choice of ukulele wasn’t entirely voluntary. In an interview with Pitchfork he explained that after falling of a bridge age 14, “my left wrist is an inch-and-a-half shorter than my [right one] and doesn’t quite have the mobility to wrap around a guitar neck without a bit of pain.” I’d say falling off a bridge was a small price to pay for avoiding the fate of becoming a guitar player.

Postcards From Italy is divided into two halves. The first half has this riff repeated:

Beirut postcards from italy tab ukulele

If you’d rather strum chords through this section, moving between F and A will do it for you.

As the lyrics shift from the nostalgia in the first half of the song to the anticipation of the second half, so the music shifts with it. There is a small correction I would make to the fingering of the chords in the chart. It suggests playing the C chord with your third finger. But using you pinkie (little finger) allows for a much easier transition into the Bbadd9. You could keep your pinky there through all the chords (creating a Dm7 rather than Dm). It creates an effective drone through the chord changes.

The rhythm for this second section is not played the same every time, but I play the basic pattern like this:

Postcards from Italy ukulele tab Beirut strumming pattern

The up arrows indicated down strums and the down arrows indicate up strums (don’t look at me, I didn’t invent the system).

Here’s the rhythm played slowly, then up to tempo.

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Comments

24 Responses to “Beirut - Postcards From Italy”

  1. maduke on July 6th, 2007 9:56 am

    what would i play without you? great selection of songs here.

  2. Woodshed on July 6th, 2007 6:29 pm

    Thanks, maduke. Glad to be of service.

  3. chris on July 13th, 2007 4:22 pm

    hey, good job with the uke tabs. i’ve tabbed beirut’s entire gulag orkestar album (http://www.saltatory.net/blog/?page_id=12). I’ve found that Faug (2110) works better than A in postcards from italy.

  4. Woodshed on July 13th, 2007 10:39 pm

    Nice one, Chris.

    To my ears A sounds better. We’ll have to agree to disagree on that one.

  5. Uke Hunt » Beirut - Elephant Gun on July 18th, 2007 10:26 pm

    […] tabbing Postcards From Italy, I was going to make my way through the whole of Gulag Orkestar. Luckily, Chris from Saltatory […]

  6. changstah on July 28th, 2007 3:28 am

    This is awesome! Any tips on how to hammer down from the 2nd to the 3rd fret? My hands are small and stupid; and I’m having the hardest time hammering down from the 2nd to 3rd fret.

  7. Woodshed on July 28th, 2007 11:00 am

    The main tip for hammer-ons is to make sure you’ve got a firm grip on the back of the neck so you’ve got something to push against. Other than that, it’s a matter of practice to make sure you are accurate and have enough force.

    In this song the only hammer-ons are from the open string to the second fret. The notes on the third fret are all strummed which means you don’t have to worry about producing the volume.

  8. Uke Hunt » Most Popluar Ukulele Tablature on August 15th, 2007 8:06 pm

    […] 1. Beirut - Postcards From Italy […]

  9. Cheeky Polenta on November 27th, 2007 11:19 pm

    Thank you so much (I mean, easily a hundred, though not a million…come on, you’ve not landed on Saturn for freaks’ sake) for this tab. I’m a struggling uke player who loves Beirut (the band not the place, though I’ve never been, so I’m not writing it off, I’m just not qualified to judge, though I might be going in April, as it happens…I’ll let you know how it goes) but has never been able to “get” it. It’s so clear now, with the hammer on to form the first F chord, then A. I can see how it all works. I’m like Sylar. I have you to thank.

    Now, any help in reading the tab for Toxic…I’ve been to EZFolk, but I still can’t see what symbol indicates a hammer on/pull off, etc.

    Less like Sylar now, I admit. But a good thing, no?

  10. Woodshed on November 28th, 2007 7:02 pm

    La la la la Heroes spoilers la la la la not listening la la la la

    A hundred ‘you’re welcome’s right back at you.

    I think I’ll have to write my own guide to reading tab.

  11. Cheeky Polenta on November 28th, 2007 7:23 pm

    See, now that would be great. The basics I get, but I can’t work out what’s a slide, what’s a hammer on, what’s a pull off.

    Story of my life, I suppose.

  12. Woodshed on November 28th, 2007 8:44 pm

    I’ll get a proper one done sometime, but here’s a quickie.

    It is a bit confusing. Hammer ons and pull offs look the same. They’re both arches between the fret numbers. If the second number is higher than the first, it’s a hammer on. If the second number is smaller, it’s a pull off.

    A slide has an arch and a diagonal line between them.

    Here’s a quick image of them:

    hampull.jpg

    Hope that helps

  13. Cheeky Polenta on November 28th, 2007 11:42 pm

    Perfect, thanks. That is exactly what I wanted to know. A thousand golden Fluke points to you sir.

  14. Erin on January 21st, 2008 8:30 am

    Hi there, great tab- this song is the reason I decided to learn the uke! I have managed to get the first half of the song alright but was wondering if you could help me out with the change of strumming pattern in the second half. Thanks.

  15. Woodshed on January 21st, 2008 7:15 pm

    Hi, Erin. The basic pattern is this:

    Postcards from Italy ukulele tab Beirut strumming pattern

    If you don’t read tab, the up arrows indicated down strums and the down arrows indicate up strums. I’ve recorded myself playing the rhythm slowly then up to tempo here:

    http://ukulelehunt.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/postcards.mp3

    Hope that helps.

  16. Niko on January 27th, 2008 8:38 pm

    My search to find accurate beirut uke tabs is finally over!… Thank you Woodshed SO MUCH. If I were to make the request of Rhineland (Heartland) could you help me figure it out?

  17. Beirut - Gulag Orkestar | Uke Hunt on February 19th, 2008 6:12 pm

    […] Postcards from Italy (Chords and Tab) […]

  18. Paz on March 31st, 2008 5:18 am

    This is a damn fine description of how to play this song. I also have trouble reading the strumming descriptions, but I know it’s near impossible to illustrate them.

  19. Woodshed on March 31st, 2008 5:25 pm

    I was just about to write, “Ukulala has done a really useful video about…” Then I realised it was you.

  20. Paz from Ukulala.com on March 31st, 2008 6:42 pm

    haha, well, I appreciate the thought (and the plug, of course)!

    yeah, i did work it out eventually, from your description and from videos I found of other people covering it. The strumming is the hardest part to figure out or explain.

  21. Adagio on May 30th, 2008 10:17 pm

    Great! Thank you for this tab. I finally managed it to play this song right, but I still have one trouble, moving my index finger from the third string to the second string when changing from A to F… It’s because how I hold my uke, the steel goes down when i try to change to a lower string. Does anyone have a idea how to hold my uke in a better way so the steel wont go down?

  22. Adam on June 12th, 2008 4:55 am

    What do you mean by “the steel goes down?”

  23. Dan on July 20th, 2008 3:27 am

    excuse my ignorance (very new to ukulele), but I think the end bit goes like this.

    3-2-1-3 then 0-0-1-0 then 0-2-1-0 then 0-0-0-3

    i’m sure if you try that progression, you will agree!

    thanks for the tab though, this was the first song I tried on ukulele
    -Dan

  24. Woodshed on July 20th, 2008 11:11 am

    Thanks for your opinion, Dan.

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